Ex-MP Shawa forms new party in Malawi – Union Party

Former parliamentarian Paul Sydney Shawa has formed a new political party called the Union Party (UP) and is opening the door for membership from  expelled members of former ruling Peoples Party to join.

Shawa, was as Member of Parliament for Mzimba South constituency from 2009 to 2014 before he was voted out following the victory of PP candidate Maquenda Chunga in the 2014 tripartite elections.

The 58-year-old Shawa,  a trained lawyer who was prosecuted in 2003 in Canada where he was practicing and admitted to stealing funds from clients, said he was the new party to be   an instrument for participation in the long struggle to uplift the plight of long-suffering Malawians.

“Our members are nationalists as opposed to anarchists or fascists. In our quest we are driven by the unacceptable fact that after over 50 years of independence, government after government lament the loss of donor support; that a nation that begs, year in year out, unashamedly, is not, an independent country; that a government that plunders and burglarizes its treasury, year in, year out is not a government of the people, by the people, for the people,” said Shawa.

He said his Union Party intends to be “revolutionary” in its approach.

“In the coming months you will be privy to the findings of our study and may publish to Malawian those findings,” said Shawa.

Shawa said there is no doubt that Malawians want change.